Jewish Family Service of Metrowest

CONTACT:

475 Franklin St
Framingham, MA 01702-4783
508-875-3100
www.jfsmw.org

Marc Jacobs, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

The Jewish Family Service of Metrowest, founded in 1979, is another example of a group offering non-sectarian social services and health care for people of all ages and backgrounds, as a witness to the group's own traditional values of social responsibility and concern for all members of a community.

JFS/MW began as a "volunteer information and referral service in the far western exurbs." Today it is a complex, multiservice agency with a staff of over 60 and an operating budget of more than $2 million. Its programs serve: elders and their caregivers, vulnerable children and their parents, interfaith-based community building initiatives, and New American Russian refugee families.

JFS/MW annually serves about 2,500 individuals throughout the Metrowest area. This illustrates the main challenge of suburban human services — that needs, and the agencies serving them, are widely scattered, making philanthropy so diffuse as to be nearly invisible, thus under-funded, and difficult to access. Nonetheless, demand far exceeds supply. JFS/MW, as an all-purpose player, needs and deserves broad philanthropic support. Won't you support their cause?

(1997: HUMAN SERVICES: Well-Being)